Women with sole

Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie (SAVF)  promote female entreprenuers through their Footpath Trust programme.

A visit to the SAVF will have you trotting back home with an unexpected pep in your step. The Newlands-based organisation has for the past seven years, been turning out female entrepreneurs who leave with more than they came with.

Cobblers and teachers at Footpath Trust, Rebecca Kubatsi and Glory Mthombeni say that they thoroughly enjoy the work they do, as it impacts the community positively. Here they get to spend time with like-minded women who are eager to start their own new ventures to better themselves.

The aim of the programme is to make a tangible change that would positively affect unemployed black women. “Footpaths is very unique in identity,” said Kubatsi. She said that their focus is levelled at upskilling unemployed black women by offering skills programmes aimed at establishing informal cobblers in the informal communities.

The women would meet three times a week for about six hours. “We teach eight women per group,” explained Mthombeni. The training spans about two months and women are trained to be cobblers. “We teach them to make raffia shoes, cover bags and shoes with cloth, and to bead plain tekkies,” divulged Mthombeni.

“We also give them economic and life skills training that would assist in their new entrepreneurial eagerness,” said Mthombeni.

After they are done with their training the women each go home with a box filled with a cobblers kit to help them start their new business, so that they can give back to the community ten-fold.

Sylvia Joni said that through her training she now has a future and can raise her children. “Being self-employed is much better than working for someone else ans I can also give to my children what I couldn’t before.”

Details: SAVF Claremont, 011 673 8106.

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